Industries and Markets

Civil & Structural Engineering

With increasing competition in the civil engineering industry and a trend of corporate consolidation and service expansion it can be difficult to maintain a consistent flow of contractual work. To combat this challenge, many firms are adding service lines to capture more contracts from loyal customers. GPR, utility and pipe locating, and concrete inspection can be profitable pathways towards customer retention and company growth. Figuring out how to add services can be difficult, inefficient, and ineffective if done improperly. We help our customers decide on priority services to offer, train staff, consult on the most appropriate technology, provide remote technical support, assess efficient paths towards high quality deliverables in typical file formats used by the company, and organize/maintain appropriate levels of recurring professional development for veteran staff and certification courses for new staff. Types of services we help our civil and structural engineering customers integrate and perform include:

Construction

Critical issues confronted by many construction companies and sub-contractors are inaccurate as-builts and one call locates, project slowdowns from damaged infrastructure during construction, lawsuits from pipe/utility/post-tension cable strikes, and increased insurance premiums. It is important for construction companies and their contractors to maximize the accuracy and completeness of pipe/utility locates; and accurately mark out conduit and reinforcements embedded in concrete prior to drilling and cutting. When properly deployed, the tools available in today’s marketplace can reduce risk, increase site safety, and increase profits by reducing project slowdowns and minimizing insurance claims. Applications we train, supply, and support the construction industry with include:

Environmental Consulting

Invasive testing and sampling techniques are necessary parts of Environmental consulting and mitigation of contaminated sites. However, coring, soil sampling, and excavation can be expensive, time-consuming and sometimes even unrepresentative of site conditions. The trend in the industry is a move towards comprehensive programs that combine non-invasive with minimally-invasive techniques such as EM conductivity and other geophysical methods, ground penetrating radar, and mobile soil testing. These techniques help reduce overall costs by limiting the required number of cores/physical samples. They also increase site safety by using them prior to drilling to minimize the likelyhood of pipe/utility strikes. Finally, in conjunction with soil sampling, these methods provide I more representative picture of subsurface project site conditions. We help environmental consultants apply non-invasive testing for:

Archaeology, Forensics, & Cemetery Mapping

The archaeological record is a non-renewable resource. Once a site is excavated, it is gone forever, except for the documentation during that investigation. However, geophysics allows the field technician to map the subsurface to either avoid the resource during construction or land development, or identify representative areas or high priority areas for limited Phase II testing. Similarly, many cemeteries have unmarked or clandestine burials and cemeteries that have been in use for decades or even centuries may have poor records due to changing ownership. This leaves unmarked burials susceptible to accidental re-exhumation and possible legal action. Bigman Geophysical can help perpetual care and municipal cemeteries limit the likelihood of uncovering unknown burials during funerals. Finally, police departments and Bureaus can use geophysics and non-invasive geophysical techniques to rapidly map crime scenes, and laser scanning to preserve them so they can be reviewed as in-situ sites prior to site contamination. We help our customers with:

Related Services

Training & Certification

We offer a diverse set of educational options from intense, live, in-person accredited workshops to online, on-demand, video courses that your team can do at their own pace and be held accountable with regular assessments and new content.

Field Support

We offer on-site management and remote technical support from our highly trained professional staff. We can even design and implement your inspection program, or provide strategic staffing options; or supply your company with short and long term equipment rentals or purchases.

Data Management

We can help your team post-process and visualize project information; providing fast turnaround times, often less than 48 hours, of processed and filtered data, with relevent maps and interpretations to help minimize costs for your project and quickly satisfy scopes of work.